News Today: Supreme Court Directs Meta and WhatsApp to Comply with CCI Privacy Guidelines — news today update
news today: The Supreme Court on Monday heard appeals by Meta Platforms Inc and WhatsApp and directed the companies to comply with National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) directions extending Competition Commission of India (CCI) privacy and consent guidelines to advertising-related data. The bench also recorded deadlines, sought compliance material and kept in play a cross-appeal filed by the CCI.
News Today Supreme Court Hearing
A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was hearing appeals filed by the tech giants against the NCLAT directions of December last year. The court is also seized of a cross-appeal filed by the CCI, assailing the NCLAT ruling to the extent it allowed WhatsApp and Meta to continue sharing users’ data for advertising purposes. One headline development in the docket is that the Supreme Court issued notice proposing a five-year ad ban on WhatsApp.
Bench and Legal Representation
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal appeared on behalf of WhatsApp and Meta and told the court the companies would comply with the NCLAT directions. Mukul Rohatgi also represented WhatsApp. On Monday, WhatsApp said it would fully comply with the NCLAT directions relating to user consent for sharing data with parent company Meta under its 2021 privacy policy by March 16, 2026; an earlier statement to the bench had said the appellants have decided to implement the tribunal’s directions by March 16.
Penalties and Tribunal Orders
The appeals relate to a CCI order that imposed a penalty of Rs 213. 14 crore on the companies over WhatsApp’s privacy policy; the same penalty amount appears in filings as ₹213. 14 crore. The NCLAT on November 4, 2025 set aside a section of the CCI order that had banned the instant-messaging app from sharing data with Meta for advertising purposes for five years, but retained a Rs 213-crore penalty on the social-media platform. The tribunal later clarified that its order on privacy and consent safeguards also applies to user-data collection and sharing for non-WhatsApp purposes, including non-advertising and advertising.
Submissions, Statute and Encryption
Appearing before the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant on Monday, Kapil Sibal submitted that WhatsApp’s technology is very clear and “put a premium on privacy. ” He said, “There is no question of violating the law, ” and further submitted that the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 comprehensively addressed the privacy concerns raised in the Supreme Court. WhatsApp has filed a comprehensive affidavit explaining its end-to-end encryption technology following scathing oral remarks from the bench in the previous hearing on February 3.
Orders, Compliance and Court Remarks
The CJI said: “These applications essentially seek a direction for a stay of the impugned judgment of the NCLAT to the extent it approves the direction issued by the CCI directing Meta to comply with the impugned directions contained in the NCLAT order dated December 15, 2025, containing certain directions issued to Meta. ” Taking note of the submissions about implementing the tribunal’s directions by March 16, the CJI dismissed the applications seeking a stay, while clarifying that the pleas were dismissed without prejudice to the issues in the main appeal. The court sought a compliance report from the companies and ordered that “Meanwhile, the appellants’ affidavit regarding the privacy policy may be examined by the CCI and a response be placed on record. ”
On February 3 the court had delivered a stinging rebuke, telling both firms that they cannot “play with the right to privacy of citizens in the name of data sharing”, and accusing them of creating a monopoly in the market and committing theft of customers’ private information. Decrying WhatsApp’s privacy policy, the court referred to “silent customers”, who are unorganised, digitally dependent and unaware of the implications of data-sharing policies, and said, “We will not allow the rights of any citizen of this country to be damaged. ”
The NCLAT had earlier framed the principle behind its decision: “The users can be given choice if users retain the right to decide what data is collected from them, for which purposes, and for how long. We had also stated in our findings that any non-essential collection or cross-use (like advertising etc. ) can occur only with the concerned user’s express and revocable consent. ” The CCI had found WhatsApp’s “take-it-or-leave-it” approach in its 2021 privacy policy an abuse of market dominance and described prior consent sought from users to share their data with Meta as “manufactured”, concluding that users were forced to share data for continued access to WhatsApp messaging services.
news today coverage will track the compliance filings and the CCI’s response: the court has asked for the companies’ compliance reports and the appellants’ affidavit on the privacy policy to be examined and placed on record. The sequence now runs from the NCLAT order dated December 15, 2025 through the November 4, 2025 tribunal action to the Supreme Court hearings in February 2026 and the deadlines set for March 16 and March 16, 2026.
Updated: February 24, 2026 02: 30 am IST — New Delhi
The court’s proceedings remain live and the matter continues before the bench as the companies prepare compliance material and the CCI pursues its cross-appeal.
